Los Angeles, CA- On June 14, 2017, I was able to catch the Toronto, ON band Honors play one of their first live gigs ever at The Echo. Honors is an alternative R&B four-piece comprised of multi-instrumentalists, writers and producers who have each had years of experience in other musical endeavors prior to joining forces. They are a new band, but have created quite the buzz with their single “Over” which has amassed over 8.5 million streams on Spotify.

Their subsequent single, “Say Yes”, has also received positive reviews, but with only these two song released to the public, I tempered my expectations. After watching them perform basically a full set of music that I was unfamiliar with, my only reaction was, “When can I buy their CD?”

Their seductively powerful downtempo grooves were additive. It was almost like I was listening to Chet Faker’s (currently Nick Murphy) debut album, except someone had injected a nice wallop of adrenaline into each track. The seductive essence of their music was enhanced by the venue’s dark and sporadic back lighting and occasional billows of machine generated fog.

This band may be “new”, but I could tell from the way that they performed and by the concentration and focus that they had on stage, that these gents were seasoned performers. I can only hope that they’ll drop their debut album soon, so that I can catch them touring in L.A. in the near future.

Derrick K. Lee is a music attorney, blogger, concert photographer and co-owner of Blurred Culture. He goes to a lot of shows and sometimes he writes good. Music is his boo.
All photos are edited with iPhoto. Lightroom edits can be made upon request. For prints and/or approvals for special uses of any photo taken by Derrick, please contact him directly.